Two Drylands ambassadors for the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) – Dr Dennis Garrity (senior research fellow at the World Agroforestry Centre) and Miss Universe 2011 Leila Lopes – hold a credit card to pay the UN for their air travel carbon emissions

Protesters gather in the decades-old Vila Autodromo squatter settlement in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Residents of the favela are facing possible eviction for construction of an Olympic park in the area. Evictions are occurring in slums throughout the city amid preparations for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. The protesters oppose Brazil's Amazon forest policies, including the controversial Belo Monte dam project

Ban Ki-moon delivers a congratulatory speech during a ceremony to sign a pact to upgrade a Seoul-established green growth thinktank into an official international organisation. The 15 signatories of the GGGI convention are South Korea, Denmark, Australia, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Kiribati, Norway, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Britain, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam